Rachel Mairs is Professor of Classics and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Reading.  After her PhD at Cambridge, she worked at several universities in the UK and US, including NYU and Oxford.  She has over 25 years' experience of research and travel in Central Asia, the Middle East and South Asia.  Her main research focus is ancient Central Asia, but she is also interested in the more recent history of the region, especially the era of Russian and British exploration and colonialism.